Derry City's Ben Doherty ready to fight for his first team place

In eight days’ time, the biggest football season of Ben Doherty’s career will kick off. The 19-year-old broke into Kenny Shiels’ senior squad towards the end of last season, and he will be hoping for more in his first full year at the top table. Son of former ‘Candy Stripes’ player Eamon, the local man has his eyes firmly fixed on next Friday’s league opener away to Bohemians. “Everyone’s looking forward to it now. We’ve put in the work and it’s not long now until we’ll get onto the pitch,” the 19-year-old told the Derry News. “Every day we’ve been in doing some work to get ready. We haven’t had much time off. Everyone has come in really committed and on board with the training this year.” Shiels has already reiterated the fact that players like Doherty will get much more game time this year, and the former Institute man is hopeful of keeping himself in the manager’s thoughts. “Last year I got a few games towards the end of the season and I got a bit of experience. With a full pre-season under my belt I feel that I’ve kicked on. Hopefully I can stamp my authority now and try to get into the team on a more regular basis,” the local lad said. “As you seen, Kenny came in and he made changes. He has no problem throwing younger boys in. He has told the team that if you’re in good form, you’ll play. It’s down to whoever is doing the business really.” Looking ahead to the 2017 season, the midfielder said he was excited to be involved in a what will be a massive year for the club. “It’s a big year ahead. Last year for the first two rounds of games I was just a fan as much as anybody else. I was playing with the 19s and just going to watch Derry week in, week out - never thinking ‘I’ll get a chance’,” Doherty explained. “We have so much to look forward to with Europe and everything coming up this year. It’s the games you want to be playing as a footballer, especially when you’re a youngster just coming into the team too.” Despite the loss of some key players in the transfer window, Doherty insisted that he felt the team were in with an even better chance of a trophy this year. “We have lost players but I think because our squad is a bit smaller than what it was last year we’re more tight-knit and there’s a sense of camaraderie amongst us all,” the 19-year-old said. “At the end of the day football comes down to success and you need to win things to be a successful team. Our main aim this year is to get silverware and to stay as close to the top as we possibly can.” One advantage for Doherty making the step up to the senior team has been the fact that he is joined by players he has grown up playing with – and he said their success has acted as a motivator for him. “Myself, Rory Holden and Conor McDermott have played in the same age group as long as we’ve been playing football,” he explained. “When we were younger we would have played against one another but we came together then for select teams and throughout our whole careers we’ve been involved with each other when it comes to football. “When I seen those two getting into the team before me, it gave me a bit more determination. I had the mindset that ‘if those boys are there, there’s no reason why I can’t do the same’. It’s worked out for the three of us and we’ve been rewarded for it,” he added. There was another great landmark in the local lad’s career on Saturday when he featured alongside Josh Daniels and Ronan Curtis in an U21 home based Republic of Ireland squad against the Amateurs side. “It was my first international call-up now since under 17 with the Northern Ireland schoolboys team. Playing any football is what you want to be doing but to get a call up from under 21s, especially when you have two years to develop at it is great,” admitted Doherty. “Going down with the two boys, Josh Daniels and Ronan Curtis, was fantastic. It was a big call up for me and I think personally we all did well and the experience was a good one to have against a talented team.” With Under 21 manager Noel King preparing to select a squad for next month’s European Championships qualifiers, the midfielder said he is hoping to impress King in upcoming weeks. “Noel is based in Ireland and he was saying to us even when we went down on Saturday that he’ll be at the games throughout the whole season and it will be whoever is doing well and playing in the first team that he’ll pick,” Doherty explained. “He has no problem picking players from here. He said he’s done it before. There are players in England who might be playing U23 or for big clubs but they aren’t getting into the first team and getting the experience that some of the boys here are getting.”